Article composed essentially of titanium and silver and method of producing the same.



UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

AUGUSTE J. ROSSI, OF NIAGARA FALLS, NEW YORK, ASSIGNOR TO THE TITANIUMALLOY MANUFACTURING COMPANY, OF NEW YORK, N. Y.,-'A CORPORATION OF I.MAINE.

ARTICLE COMPOSED ESSENTIALIY TITANIUM SILVER METHOD OF PRO- DUGING- THESAME.

No Drawing.

Specification or Letters Patent. Application filed. January 30,1912.Serial No. 674,257.

Patented Apr. 23, 1912.

To all whom 'it may 001mm.-

Be it known that I, AUcUs'rE J. RossI, a citizen of the United States,and a resident of Niagara Falls, in the county of Niagara and State ofNew York, have invented a certain new and useful Article ComposedEssentially of Titanium and Silver and "Methods of Producing the Same,of which the following isa specification.

The objects of my present invention comprise the production of a binaryalloy of titanium with silver and provision of methods for producing it,so simple and reliable in operation, and so economical, as to justifymanufacture on idustrial scales. I attain these objects as hereinafterdescribed. I have discovered that the said binary alloy of titanium withsilver is exceptionally useful for the purpose of purifying silver inmass as heretofore produced in the usual processes of manufacture.Silver, while in molten state, absorbs gaseous elements or compounds,which are dissolved in the metal and retained therein as it solidifiesduring cooling. Forinstance oxy-' gen from the atmosphere is thus verylargely absorbed, and, to a great extent, combined chemically with thesilver, forming oxids thereof, which, together with oxygen, if any,remaining uncombined, are found occluded in the mass of the solidifiedmetal. The aforesaid foreign elements and compounds are usuallyunhomogeneouslydistributed in uncontrollable locations throughout themass. of the metal, thus producing blow-holes or other cavities or pitson the surface. The presence ofsuch impurities and their'resultantimperfections in the metal not only disfigure it for certain purposesfor which a high and perfectpolished surface is desired, but

also, after solidification of the metal, tend to subse uent additionaldeteriorations of the meta, including particularly its continuedundesirable oxidation by normal outside influences; The impuritiesmentioned, and their results on the metal, depreciate its value in massfor many special purposes, as will be read ly understood. I havediscovered that the said undesirable impurities can all of. them beeliminated by addin to the silver, while molten, metallic titamumin"amounts proportioned toof molten aluminum to the charge.

satisfy the chemical affinities therefor of such undesired elements andcompounds and also properties desirable in some cases imparted byincreasing such amount so as to retain in the resulting product amoderate proportionas for instance less than one per cent.- of titanium.

Segregated titanium is still I believe unattainable in quantitiessufficient for operations on an industrial scale or at all eventsunattainable except at too great cost. Moreover thepeculiarcharacteristic properties of titanium, as compared with those,charge into a graphite crucible, or other container properly adapted,some silver 'sufiicient on being melted to form a small supporting orinitiatory bath of that metal.

To such silver I add an oxid of silver, for.

instance Ag O, and also titanic acid mixed therewith in suchproportions'as, on reduction, taken together with the silver of thebath, to impart to the resulting alloy the desired respectiveproportions of the two metals. To the said sllver and mixture of oxids Ialso add such an, amount of aluminum (preferably in shots or the like soas to melt more'rapidly) as is chemically sufficient to decompose theoxids of silver and of titanium and reduce their respective titanium andsilver contents to their metallic states. This mixture is then heated bany convenient'means to a point at whic the aluminum melts, therebysupplying a bfizlh e additional heat developed bythe reduction of theoxid of silver by the aluminum rapidly raises the charge to 'atemperature r uired to set 11 the reduction of the end of titanium y thealuminum; which then proceeds until the reduction of all the oxidepresent is completed. Care should be reactions to which the latter isdue being as per the following formulae, assuming that Ag O is the oxidof silver employed I prefer to employ the foregoing method largelybecause of its economy, the cost of the oxid requisite to produce therequired amount of silver being considerably less than that of suchamount .of silver in metallic form, and also because the heat offormation of oxid of silver is so small compared to that of theformation of aluminum oxid as to leave a large surplus of heatimmediately applicable to the reduction of the oxid of titanium wherebythe reactions are promoted and accomplished at a considerably lessexpenditure of external heat than required Where silver altogether isalone employed in the charge. It will be understood, however, that thesaid alloy may be produced, though not so advantageously, bysubstantially the process above referred to by using as the argenticmaterial in the process above referred to metallic silver exclusively,or, on the other hand, by using as such argentic material oxid of silverexclusively. The molten product on being withglrawn and cooled will befound to be an alloy of titanium and silver, the percentage of theformer being proportional to the amounts of titanium oxid and aluminumcharged.

My said alloy of titanium and silver may also, though not soadvantageously, be produced by substituting carbon for aluminum as thereducing agent, in which case it is essential, in industrial practice,to employ such high temperatures as are derivable from some of the nowwell known forms of electric furnaces, such for example as illustratedand described in Letters Patent No. 802,941, granted to me October 24,1905. In this case, oxid of silver, oxid of titanium, and carbon areemployed as per the formulae:-

The said ingredients, either with or without some metallic silver as maybe preferred,

are changed in said furnace and the current turned on. This will resultin production of a bath of molten silver, and the current beingcontinued the titanium oxid will be reduced to titanium which mingles ordissolves in said bath of silver to constitute the said alloy. In thisinstance, like the foregoing, the addition of silver in metallic state,though not absolutely necessary, facilitates the reduction of thetitanium oxid by the carbon and it will of course be understood that thealloy may be thus produced by using as the only argentic material of thecharge metallic silver.

The proportions of the ingredients used in the charge will be variedaccording to the percentage of the respective metals desired in thealloy according tothe formulas above given and as experience and test ineach case will readily demonstrate to those skilled in the metallurgicalart is required for the particular'purpose for which the alloy is to beused.

What I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is thefollowing, viz

1. As a new article an alloy of titanium with silver.

2. The method of producing an alloy of titanium with silver whichcomprises incorporating titanic acid into a bath of molten silverin-presence of a reducing agent, subjecting the bath to a temperaturesufficient to insure reduction of-said titanic acid by said agent, andwithdrawing and cooling the resulting metallic product.

3. The method of producing an alloy of titanium with silver whichcomprises bringing together argentic material, titanic acid and carbon,and subjecting the combination to a temperature suiiicient to insureproduction therefrom of molten silver and molten aluminum.

4. The method of producing an alloy of titanium with silver whichcomprises bringing together oxid of silver, oxid of titanium and carbon,and subjecting the combination 7 to a temperature sufiicient to insurereduction of said oxids by said carbon and then withdrawing and coolingthe resulting metallic product.

aueus'rn J. uossr.

Witnesses:

WALTER D. EoMoNos, PHILIP C. Pack.

